


The Backstory (1840-1874)

by Cerdic519



Series: Elementary CLX [3]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Victorian, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-09 01:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10400217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerdic519/pseuds/Cerdic519
Summary: The backstory; the early years of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson, as re-arranged due to a marginal error by a certain Angel of Thursday....





	

London, United Kingdom

January 31st, 1840: Mr. Carol Novak arrives penniless from Eastern Europe. He builds up a cake and fancies business over the next seven years, and some time during that period takes the surname of his first backer, a Mr. Edward Holmes.

March 3rd, 1846: Mr. Charles Holmes becomes Sir Charles, knighted for services to the nation (or as some newspapers crudely put it, cash to the government).

Belford, Northumberland

March 27th, 1847: The Newcastle-Edinburgh railway opens, and the North Eastern Railway Company compensates amongst others one Mr. Jeffrey Watson, occasional estate hand and a more occasional supporter of local bars, whose house lay where the station was required to be located. He moves into No. 1, Station Cottages, about a mile from the village.

London, United Kingdom

April 21st, 1847: Sir Charles Holmes marries Miss Rebecca Rosen, the daughter of his one-time landlady who had since become his secretary. They bond over a shared passion for writing truly terrible stories, and live at Doyle House, London.

May 17th, 1848: Lady Holmes is delivered of twin sons, Mycroft and Lucius.

February 24th, 1850: Lady Holmes is delivered of a son, Ranulph.

Belford, Northumberland

March 1st, 1850: Mr. Jeffrey Watson marries Miss Mary Campbell from Roxburghshire. 

London, United Kingdom

October 5th, 1851: Lady Holmes is delivered of a son, Bacchus. Rumours that the boy began his existence on Earth by trying to chat up the midwife are understandable, but untrue. Rumours that she chose his name because of the circumstances of his conception are unproven, but true.

Belford, Northumberland

January 24th, 1852: Mary Watson is delivered of a son, named John Harrison Dean after his father's middle name and his paternal grandfather. The latter, Mr. Harrison Dean Campbell, changes his will to leave his considerable estate to young John and any future siblings, and appoints his friend Sir Charles Holmes as an administrator (this is because in the law of those times, a wife's property immediately becomes that of her husband).

London, United Kingdom

April 1st, 1853: Lady Holmes is delivered of a son, Gaylord. Her husband, whose business has been experiencing some difficulties, suffers a fit of depression, lasting for nearly a year.

September 18th, 1854: Lady Holmes is delivered of a son, Sherlock. The unusual name (even for her!) means 'fair-haired; the boy's flaxen locks promptly darken in record time.

January 12th, 1856: Lady Holmes is delivered of a daughter, Anna Gloria. It is a difficult birth, and she is advised to refrain from having any more children.

Belford, Northumberland

May 2nd, 1856: Mary Watson is delivered of a son, named Samuel Lawrence after his paternal grandfather and the town in the United States recently destroyed in the ongoing furore over slavery (Mary's late mother Sally Campbell had been an ardent campaigner against the trade). John misses the birth because he has walked the five miles to Bamburgh to stare out at the sea and daydream.

London, United Kingdom

September 10th, 1861: Sherlock starts school at a religious order in London. He excels at logic and does well at everything else except art, which he hates.

September 19th, 1862: Lady Holmes finds out that Bacchus and Gaylord have been teasing Sherlock about the long-coat that his father gifted him as an eighth birthday present the day before, and makes them act as his personal servants for a month. She also makes over both their allowances to him. There are no further incidents.

Belford, Northumberland

October 1st, 1862: Mary Watson arranges to clean the house of a Bamburgh teacher so that her sons can attend school there. John is immensely happy at this (!), and his mother duly clips him on the ear for rolling his eyes when he had thought her out of sight.

March 14th, 1865: Mary Watson's lawyer cousin Mr. Christian Campbell visits, and arranges for the younger Watson to eventually pursue his interest in becoming a lawyer himself at Edinburgh University.

July 4th, 1868: John finds his drunken father dead in a ditch not far from their house, the latter presumably having failed to make it home from the taverns in Bamburgh after being banned from those in the village for his terrible behaviour. Her father having died, Mary Watson does as asked and telegraphs Sir Charles Holmes.

July 12th, 1868: Sir Charles Holmes visits the Watsons, and sorts their finances out. Mary is to receive a generous allowance for the rest of her life, and her sons will have what remains when she passes. 

London, United Kingdom

April 5th, 1870: Lucius and Bacchus Holmes begin working for Her Majesty's Government. They are subsequently joined by Gaylord (1871).

October 4th, 1872: Sherlock starts at Bargate College in Oxford, reading Humanities and Divinity. In his second year he will share a room with one Mr. James Stamford, a friend of John's who also started in 1870 and they will remain room-mates for Sherlock's remaining time in Oxford. Stamford passes on to his room-mate about John's wish to be a doctor, Sherlock speaks to his father about it, and Sir Charles arranges for John to undertake some reading and essays that will eventually count towards a medical degree at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Unfortunately....

Belford, Northumberland

October 10th, 1872: John's mother falls ill with a wasting disease. He takes a part-time job and cares for her, but manages to find some time for his studies.

August 27th, 1874: Mary Watson dies. Unfortunately much of her father's inheritance has gone on medical bills, but with the sale of the house there is enough to set both her sons up, although Samuel will have to lodge with his cousin Christian in Edinburgh, whilst John travels to London for his degree. A letter from Stamford invites John to Oxford for the few weeks before term starts, and he accepts.

Near Appleford, Berkshire

September 3rd, 1874: Having travelled down from London the day before, John Watson is on the final stretch of his journey to meet his old friend – and this 'Mr. Sherlock Holmes'.


End file.
